Neurodivergent Characters in Movies, TV, and Pop Culture

JULIA joined the cast of Sesame Street in 2015

Over the years there have been representations of neurodivergent (ND) characters in popular movies and TV. Some of these are explicitly named, but more often than not, characters are neurodivergent coded, meaning they are given traits that ND people have but are never confirmed as being ND. That can lead to a character feeling tokenized or trendy.

Jim Parsons as SHELDON COOPER in THE BIG BANG THEORY

Having a character with autism, ADHD, Tourette’s, or dyslexia can seem like it would be a win because it makes ND visible and something people can discuss. However, you don’t want your only exposure to ND people to be on television. This leads to misinformation and assumptions.

Tom Cruise as CHARLIE; Dustin Hoffman as RAYMOND in RAIN MAN

The first such character might be Dustin Hoffman’s Raymond Babbitt as an autistic savant in RAIN MAN (1988). While a touching portrayal, if this is your only education, you might assume that all autistic people are geniuses. And ask them, “What is your superpower?” Talk about pressure.

Freddie Highmore as DR. SHAUN MURPHY in THE GOOD DOCTOR

The next character one might think of is Shaun Murphy from THE GOOD DOCTOR, a highly skilled surgical resident who can visualize patient’s ailments and hurts in 3D space. The show also depicts his challenges in communicating with others, while also demonstrating the loving and mostly supportive working community he has and how they ALL have to adjust to each other to be a team. Still, people have criticized the show for not employing any ND writers on staff. After awhile it started to appear that the writers had written themselves into a box of having to have Shaun wow everyone with his solutions or have a big meltdown to gain enough viewers.

Keir Gilchrist as SAM in ATYPICAL

The show ATYPICAL was criticized for having no autistic actors, but they adjusted in season 2. But one might ask why they didn’t have this plan from the beginning? Why does it take public criticism to involve a community in creating good characters? 

Paras Patel as MATTHEW in THE CHOSEN

One of the more interesting ND characters from the past couple decades happened when Dallas Jenkins decided to make the Apostle Matthew, who was a tax collector, a character with autism. Having skills with money, recordkeeping, and the ability to remember details would certainly come in handy when trying to record the words and acts of Jesus for posterity. This is an instance where a show creator made a conscious choice to insert ND into a world that has never considered that people on the spectrum have surely existed since the beginning of time. Part of Jenkin’s reasoning is that he has a daughter who is ND and felt it was important to have this character be part of the world. This demonstrates the importance of having people advocate for more and better representation within Hollywood. 

The character of AARON MITCHELL from MITCHELLS VS. THE MACHINES may have autism

This day and age, if you are going to have ND characters, it’s expected that you have ND writers on staff and perhaps even employ an ND actor to portray that person.

DAVID and ABBEY are one couple featured on LOVE ON THE SPECTRUM

Finally, the reality TV show LOVE ON THE SPECTRUM makes an interesting case study because it features a variety of people all at once, demonstrating the experiences of many types of ND all at once. These are real people -- not characters, and yet, the popularity of the show has made these people pop culture icons. We don't really know them, but we feel we do. It's safe to say we will think we are learning about ND representation from them. 

Overall the point is that these portrayals will exist in the media, but they should be treated as portrayals and not necessarily good sources of what all ND people are like. After watching LOVE ON THE SPECTRUM, I asked several ND friends what they thought of the show. The answers were varied and gave me a lot to think about. The best source of information about people who happen to be ND is ND people themselves. 

Do you have any favorite characters in the pop culture who are explicitly or coded as ND?